Paul Williams, the witty and diminutive singer-songwriter (Carpenters, Three Dog Night) would often appear on 70s talk shows, games shows, on The Love Boat, in Smokey and the Bandit, on The Muppet Show, celebrity roasts—not to mention his greatest role as “Swan” in Brian DePalma’s campy cult classic Phantom of the Paradise. He was in, or on just about anything back then, including heaping mountains of cocaine (Hence all of that manic energy he used to exhibit back then.)
Williams also played “Virgil” the smart orangutan in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. He wore his makeup straight from the 20th Century Fox movie set for this memorable appearance promoting the film on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1973 and sang in costume.